Seeing the wood from the trees
Nottingham Forest FC are in their second campaign in the Premier League. The aim is to stay up, and they have a battle on their hands. Can they do it?
Welcome to another blog of how to manage a Premier League team in the first season on FM24. The idea behind this guide is that we take control of each EPL team and play them through the first season using our Day One guides. We will then do a guide of suggestions and recommendations for each club for you. The biggest mistake we see new managers make is that they do not know who their first 11 are.
In this FM24 guide, we are taking charge of Nottingham Forest. In our Day One guide, they are seen as an interesting team to play with due to the formation we could play. As well as that they have a large squad of players from all around the world. All this makes for an interesting proposition as Nottingham Forest have already had a season in the EPL.
In this guide we are going to:
- Look at the league performance and individual performances.
- We will look at the tactics which have been used in Football Manager 24.
- Potential transfers and areas of improvement.
Read on if you want to change Nottingham Forest’s future on FM24 and make them great again!
Nottingham Forest Results
In this section we review the the fixtures so far. You can take a lot of data from the results so such as what type of teams you currently beating and struggling against. While it is general data it can it can be a starting point for your focus on FM24.
When I first started my season with Nottingham Forest FC I knew this would be struggle. Our main objective was just to be better than three other teams in the league so we would not get relegated. This means beating the bottom three without us, so Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United. We succeeded in doing this. The season started well with 2 wins from 3 games, a 66% win rate so far.
The next couple of months were less fruitful until we met Burnley for the first time. We beat them 1-0 and catapulted us above the others. Things got better as we moved on, beating Crystal Palace and Chelsea, what a massive win. I think the team took a long time to adapt to the tactic and also to gel.
Overall, it has been a marvellous start getting to 9th in the table. This is certainly not expected by the board or fans. I have actually started to believe that I could win the league with Nottingham Forest in the next 3-4 years on FM24.
The most disappointing thing is looking at our goal difference at -4. This indicates that we have a problem with either scoring or conceding. Looking at the teams above us, we are so off the pace in terms of defence. Despite playing with 5 at the back, we are conceding too many. This is an area to focus on.
Individual Performances
In this section we look at the individual performances of players. In this section I will only go through the basics that I look for as I will write pages and pages. This just helps to focus on either a granular level for your general problem, or to identify a problem on the horizon. FM24 does a really good job of having modern stats for you to look at.
Moving into the individual player performances at Nottingham Forest FC we have a few interesting developments. We have 6 players playing at a high level consistently, as well as that, they are all defenders. This highlights how hard the defence are working in the team. I don’t think there is much more I can ask them to do at their ability. This indicates that I will need to buy better quality defenders to decrease our goals conceded.
Looking at the Xg the majority of players are pulling their weight. Hudson-Odoi is the only one that doesn’t seem to be hitting his targets. Aina and Hudson-Odoi are the only players who are not hitting the passing completion targets to my surprise. It’s very impressive to see a team like this passing so well.
Luckily, Hudson-Odoi is a rotation player, so I will look to replace him in January after restructuring the squad to the formation. This team is going places!
Nottingham Forest FC Tactics
In this section, we reveal the tactic that has been used on FM24 for this team. We talk through how it works and what we can change in order to make it more effective. In most games it will be the tactic we developed in the Day One series.
So I will start with how we score goals. As we didn’t have one top quality striker we had to look at playing two or three. Two different types of strikers is always a benefit as you can score through different avenues. This formation provides through balls from midfield, but also the attacking wing backs.
We have gone with the typical defensive, support and attacking roles in the midfield triangle. I think I will need to look at the roles, this was an easy set up for a lower skilled team. Defending in a three is normally because your defenders are not all that good. In this case they aren’t the best, Felipe is in the twilight of his career, Boly is pretty average and Murillo is a future wonderkid on FM24.
In terms of changing for the future, I think that we could go with a ball winner in midfield to help interrupt play. Also I will either settle on a target man and poacher, or advanced forward with deep lying forward. As well as this I think I am interested passing the ball out to the wings.
Conclusion
Overall Nottingham Forest FC have surprised on FM24. I thought this could be the challenge that back the camel’s back, but they are playing well. A long way to go to get in the top 6, but we can work to that. This is only the January stopping point so I look forward to posting a blog about the whole season.
The strength of this team is the depth, it is a really big squad that they have amassed over the last couple of seasons. There are so many options, and events like injuries are unlikely to ruin the momentum in the squad. The weakness of this team is the skill level. There are a few positions I have to double up like up front and in centre back. These are precautions you take when the skill level is not at it’s best.
The opportunity at Nottingham Forest is that there is a youth system and you can move on some of the large squad you have to fund it. The squad is full of players of the same standard, so moving them on is a matter of making a choice. The threat is that if you stick with the large squad, it will eat into your finances and handicap the future transfers or facilities.
Go and start your Nottingham Forest FC game today on football manger 24. Let us know in the comments how you get on. Please like and follow our social media pages.
